Enigma Read Online Free

go last night?”
    “It didn’t.” Patrick stepped inside. “Anna beat me to the kill. Don’t know how she knew.”
    “Huh.” Andrew raised his voice. “Alec, did you set Anna on the Trumaine thing?”
    A chair scraped in the other room, and Alec poked his head around the corner. “No. Did she catch wind of it?”
    “Yeah.” Patrick followed Kat and Andrew as they headed back to the table. “She’s got damn good contacts in the shapeshifter community. Most of mine are magical, so I never hear about things as quickly as she does.”
    “See?” Andrew dropped into a chair. “It doesn’t make sense not to have her helping out, especially since we don’t have to worry about pissing off the rest of the Conclave.”
    “You’re right.” Alec braced his elbows on the table, and he looked suitably tired for a man who had helped dismantle the shapeshifter world order. Most people were still trying to decide if the change had made things better or worse.
    Patrick had spent most of his life dodging the ruling body that governed the largest group of shifters in the country, but at least the Conclave had provided some damn oversight, however unreliable. The new way was different, messy. Quality of life was going up in the Southeast now that Alec had absolute control, but out in the rest of the country…
    Well, not all leaders looked as tired as Alec, and their people suffered for it.
    As if he could sense Patrick’s thoughts, Alec frowned. “What? Something else?”
    Not the time to blunt the truth. “It’s a mess out there. You guys might need to be prepared for a whole lot of supernaturals picking up and trying to find a home in your territory. And that’ll include people like the rogue wolf that attacked Trumaine.”
    Andrew folded his hand around Kat’s. “It’s the same thing we’ve been encountering wherever we go. We were just saying so.”
    “I can’t run them down fast enough.” Kat sounded tired too, and sad. The turned wolves had become her crusade, and every time one had to be put down, she took it personally. “We need people like you and Anna on this full time. People with contacts, connections, who can find the ones that won’t talk to us.”
    They were all so clean they squeaked when they moved too fast. Andrew and Alec might have the nerves of stone-cold mercenaries, but they looked like what they were—men who enforced laws, even if they weren’t of the human variety. Most of Patrick’s best informants would take one look at either of them and go so far down the rabbit hole he’d have to wait for their kids to come back out. “I told you I’d help out.”
    Andrew eyed him. “And if helping out means working with Anna?”
    “Then I work with Anna.” Hell, it might help. At least then she couldn’t run away. “She might not feel the same way, though.”
    “I think she’ll get the job done, and so will you.”
    Alec leaned forward, intense and serious, and Patrick had been around enough shapeshifters to know the body language was instinct, not intent. It didn’t stop him from tensing as Alec spoke in a low voice. “I want to know if you’ll do more than take jobs. I’ve been talking to Andrew, trying to figure out if Anna would be willing…”
    That sounded fucking ominous. Patrick looked at Andrew. “Willing to what?”
    “Keep an ear to the ground,” he answered. “Like Kat said, people don’t talk to us. But you and Anna have the right contacts, and you run in the right circles. You’re in a position to know the things we need to know.”
    “I’m Alec’s NSA,” Kat said. “He needs a CIA.”
    Oh, yeah. Nothing big. “That’s something I need to sleep on.”
    “Fine,” Alec said, pushing his chair back. “Think about it, because I’m talking a real job, with real pay. Kat, walk me downstairs, would you?”
    “Sure.”
    When they were gone, Patrick raised both eyebrows. “Are you guys serious about this?”
    Andrew tapped his fingers on the table and